


a soul set in darkness

by loravura (thesleepdeprived)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, DOING IT FOR THE LESBIANS, Dealing With Trauma, Diary/Journal, F/F, Femslash, Fluff, Humor, Illustrated, Meteorstuck, Minor Terezi Pyrope/Vriska Serket, Non-Graphic Violence, Post-Retcon, Slow Burn, Social Awkwardness, THIS FIC IS ENTIRELY ROSEMARY CENTRIC, autistic rose lalonde, note: author not on the autism spectrum but i'm getting help from people who are!, sibling antics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-12 05:45:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15333099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesleepdeprived/pseuds/loravura
Summary: Rose finds a big empty book in a chest. She intends to share her experiences of the game for future players to use as a guide, but it dissolves into gay ramblings, psychoanalysis of everyone she lives with, and oversharing shockingly quickly as she tries to cope with the huge messy list of things that happened on John’s birthday.Kanaya is mourning the loss of the Matriorb and her friends, and has no idea where to go from here. She’s got weekly Stitch ’n Bitch meetings, a newfound thirst for blood, and a mouth that won’t stop Saying Words against her better judgement. Hopefully she can make it through this in one piece.Dave’s trying to get it together. Karkat’s confused. Vriska’s got the irons. Terezi’s got the fire. Gamzee’s… Gamzee.It’s going to be a long three years.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> WELCOME TO THE LESBIAN ZONE, I HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR STAY!  
> minor warnings: im not gonna be dodging big chunks of rose and kanaya's character arcs? so be prepared for discussions of how lesbophobia affected rose at a young age, alcoholism, canon-typical violence, dead friends, and more fun shit like that.
> 
> HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED ME EDIT THIS! Kate, saltylemonade, and Leo- y'all are great!!
> 
> Art credits: First image by myself, second is a screenshot from Vriskagram, drawn by Xamag. (If you know how I can change my HTML so that the images fit every screen, let me know please! I know I reblogged a post about it a while ago but can't find it.)

Every second following the one in which the humans set foot on the meteor was immensely chaotic. They had travelled in silence, dead set on following their plan to the letter. They found the stumbling, scattered group of trolls on an observation deck atop the meteor rather easily thanks to Aradia’s guidance, though said group was nothing like what Rose had expected, and it seemed that she and Dave had landed in the middle of something.

“Karkat, could you maybe shut the fuck up for once in your life?” asked one troll, who Rose identified as the living half of Sollux. She realized that she hadn’t actually seen any of the trolls she’d talked to online before, and wouldn’t be able to identify the who’s-who for at little while yet, aside from Aradia and Sollux, who had brought her and Dave here. 

She was able to identify Karkat immediately, though, as he was throwing perhaps one of the top ten biggest tantrums in Paradox Space. He likely held most of the titles on the list, and was trying to break his own record. At the moment, he was visibly shaking, though with rage, fear, or otherwise-- Rose couldn’t tell. The mumbles he murmured under his breath fluctuated in frequency and volume from time to time, until he turned around to see the four new additions to the meteor, and promptly won that top spot for “biggest tantrum” by a mile.

“How the fuck did Egbert just show up? What did you asinine nooksniffers do?”

Dave furrowed the small portion of his brow that was visible over his shades. “What? John’s on the Beat Mesa, how many times did we go over this plan?”

“No, you dipshit, I just said he was here, didn’t I? Was I not perfectly fucking clear?”

“What was he doing?” Rose interrupted, worried. She hadn’t Seen this when using her powers to ensure their plan had the best odds of success, and deviation from that painstakingly laid plan worried her. 

“Fuck if I know! He was saying some bizarre shit about the timeline and then he fucking decked Vriska because of it? Clearly, I don't understand anything anymore, so I don't know why you'd bother asking me.”

"He punched Vriska?" Dave asked, impressed. "Damn. I mean, not that I wouldn't, but I wonder what she did to make John finally fed up with her shit? It must've been pretty bad, he put up with her literally arranging his death before."

“Where did he go?" Rose asked.

"What part of 'I don't understand anything anymore' don't you assholes get? He literally just vanished. There was a blue light, and he just. Fucking. Disappeared."

"Well, that's new." Dave replied. 

Rose seemed to realize she wouldn't get anything reasonable out of the borderline-hysterical troll (Karkat always bordered on the hysterical, it seemed) and had turned to look at her surroundings. The floor around them was grey cement and covered in a myriad of mysterious and colorful stains, which was fairly ominous as she remembered Kanaya mentioning her fellow trolls having blood in such hues. A troll with asymmetrical horns, likely Vriska from the orange outfit matching Rose's own and shimmering blue wings, was a good distance away. Next to her was another with long, pointed horns in a bizzare red and teal outfit appeared to be helping pull her upright. The color palette suggested she could be Terezi. "What happened here?" Rose asked nervously, directed at no one in particular. 

Karkat rolled his eyes in the most exaggerated way possible and opened his mouth to start yelling again. It was then that Rose noticed another troll, standing at the edge of the crude gray observation deck, silhouetted in the green, blinding light of the Sun (it had burned itself into her retinas, her brain, and she didn't think it'd ever go away). They were tall, but their tired, slumped posture gave the opposite impression at first glance. They were gazing upwards into the green fireball, seemingly unfazed by its brilliant light (how lucky they were). 

Rose started to make her way towards them, keeping her eyes low to avoid the blinding light. (it was so bright, so bright and green and all-consuming, looking at it made phantom pains ripple across her skin in echoes of the shrapnel only minutes before, it was so so bright, so so green) She followed a trail of green splotches, still wet and sticking to her shoe for a few moments before disappearing in the faintest glow of yellow god-tier magic, to where the troll stood. Through the process of elimination--Vriska, Karkat, Sollux, Aradia, and Terezi being already accounted for--she knew that there was a growing chance of this being the troll she'd been waiting to meet. 

Karkat's shrieks increased in volume as Rose began to walk towards the figure, varied refrains of "YOU AREN'T EVEN LISTENING, ARE YOU?" fading slightly as she walked. 

She came to stand next to the unfamiliar troll, and they seemed to not notice her for a moment, before turning slightly. 

"Hello Rose, it's nice to finally see you in person." There was something in her tone, the slightly lilted speech coming out perfectly enunciated, making Rose take a leap of faith.

"You as well, Kanaya." Rose immediately, mentally cringing, upon realizing that such a leap was likely more presumptuous and odd sounding than she'd imagined, especially if she turned out to be wrong. "You _are_ Kanaya, right?"

The troll girl stifled a laugh behind her hand. "The drawbacks to the Trollian viewport system continue to reveal themselves. I'd forgotten you wouldn't know what I looked like. Yes, that's me."

Rose internally cringed further. She was the best at first impressions, it was her. 

Keeping her eyes down, (the sun was so bright and so green and she hated it) she continued. "I had thought for a moment that you could be one of the others, aren't there twelve of you?"

Kanaya froze, stopping Rose in her metaphorical tracks. Her hands tightened on the guardrail in front of her, gray fingers trembling slightly. "Yes, there were."

 _Were_ . God, Rose really _was_ terrible at first impressions, it seemed _._ "I'm sorry," She muttered. How do you respond to an alien's traumatic experiences? She'd been down some deep Wikipedia trails and had read a large percentage of the articles on psychology, yet somehow this particular situation had never come up. 

She risked a glance upwards (THE SUN IS SO HOT AND SO GREEN AND IT HURTS SHE HURT EVERYWHERE AND THEN SHE WAS FLYING) to see Kanaya's curious yellow eyes looking down to meet her own. "What do you have to be sorry for? I might be misunderstanding the definition of that one, apologies were never very common on Alternia." The words were said without malice, only genuine curiosity, and yet Rose still felt a little smaller upon hearing them.

"Sorry for your loss. It's a human phrase, for when a friend or-" She was interrupted by an ear splitting scream, a thump, and raucous laughter. Spinning around, she saw Karkat on the floor, screaming his head off more loudly than usual, and clutching his head. Vriska was standing next to him, leaning on Terezi while both of them absolutely howled with laughter. A bucket slowly rolled away from the scene. Kanaya had frozen, face flushed over greener than even the sun's rays (the sun. THE SUN) could excuse. She seemed unsure as to whether to move closer or pretend she'd seen nothing. 

Everyone else seemed to be congregating around the scene of the incident, so Rose started over immediately. She stood next to Dave, who looked down on Karkat with an incredibly unimpressed look. Kanaya shuffled her way over tentatively, peering at Karkat through a hand that was simultaneously serving as a shield between her and the bullshit that had just transpired and a facepalm. 

"What's that?” Dave asked, reaching over the squirming Karkat on the floor to grab the edge of a piece of paper that had seemingly rolled out of the bucket. Vriska and Terezi had calmed down enough to stand independently upright, though Karkat's tantrum was still in full force. 

Dave unfolded his find, revealing a large poster for Armageddon, beautifully defaced in glowing orange. Karkat immediately snatched it away from him, still muttering obscenities under his breath, contributing further to Vriska, Terezi, and now Aradia's giggling fits. 

He took a moment to read the poster. While his mouth finally was hushed to silence, his facial expressions continued its valiant work in betraying the sort of horror that was most definitely not appropriate for this situation on its own. His eyes darted back and forth between the page and the group now crowded around him, pupils dilating, mouth gaping, and lip curling, while the ever-present furrow between his eyebrows deepened and grew exponentially. 

Then, suddenly, it was over. He handed the paper over to Dave, and flopped back onto the floor, blissfully yet surprisingly silent, for a moment. He covered his face with both hands and sighed deeply. "I'm never going to fucking live this down, am I?"

A slight noise came from somewhere behind Vriska, high pitched but brief. The effect it had on the trolls was astounding though. Karkat shot up to his feet, eyes wild and arms shaking. Sollux turned his blind eyes towards the sound, tensed and ready for a fight. Kanaya was suddenly holding a chainsaw. Even Terezi had stiffened, spinning on her heel to also look for the source of the noise. The only two trolls seemingly unaffected in this way were Aradia, who just looked confused, and Vriska, who rolled her eyes and turned, much more slowly, to face the culprit. 

A small form was huddled on the floor a few feet away, seemingly a troll curled into a ball. Upon closer inspection, they were bound with some sort of rope into this position, with two long, sweeping and slightly S-shaped horns pointing out from a mass of unruly black hair. A small pool of dark purple lay under their face, oozing from three diagonal cuts across their... his? face. The noise sounded again, clearer this time. Was that a... bike horn? What? Vriska walked up and lightly kicked him in the back. Honk. 

One eyebrow became visible above the upper rim of Dave's shades. A rare sight. 

Several questions erupted from the assembled newcomers at the same time. 

"Who's this?" Rose asked. 

Dave might have squinted, Rose guessed from his expression. "Is that face paint? Juggalo troll?"

"Um, what happened with Gamzee? Why are you-" Aradia was quickly interrupted. 

"You don't want. To fucking know. Trust me." Karkat responded quietly, still tense. 

"Um, okay... What are we going to do with Sollux's body, by the way?"

From there, the conversation weaved and swerved like a leaf floating down-river, from 'corpse parties,' to Karkat's questionable leadership, to where they all would go from there. Rose handled that part rather quickly, with a few interjections from Vriska, who confirmed their path to be sound, and informed Sollux of his role in propelling the meteor. It was quickly agreed that he and Aradia would be staying behind to manage the dream bubbles as they wished, which Rose had no problem with. All was going admirably well, up until Kanaya said something that made Rose freeze. 

"Maybe I will stay here too."

"Why?" Rose blurted out, surprised. 

"As nice as it sounds to move on, I don't know if I can stand three of your human years of more darkness. I like this sun. It's comforting, in a strange way. Like home."

Rose swallowed, hard, at the mention of the sun she'd been pretending wasn't there. (so bright and hot, she'd met dave's eyes through his shades and the noise was like nothing she had ever heard or could imagine again, it had hurt so much and then there was nothing.) It felt like a betrayal, against all her more logical thoughts. It had really only been a day, but she'd wanted to meet Kanaya so badly, she'd been so excited to finally see her... Rose distantly felt a slight tremble in her knees, hopefully masked by her new orange skirt, as she replied after a brief pause. . "What if we need your help?"

Kanaya laughed softly, insincerely. "What could I possibly do, aside from providing a light source as you navigate the dim corridors? I would function as a premium escort to the load gaper, and that's about it."

Thankfully, Aradia intervened, reminding Kanaya of her duty to restore their race. It was something Kanaya had mentioned before, but never in a way this deeply upset and hopeless. Every hint of the events that had transpired on this meteor just made Rose more reluctant to know their full, likely depressing, scope. 

"Can't you see the path to victory on this matter, Rose?" Kanaya asked. 

Rose immediately closed her eyes and focused on the future. It was so much more bright and colorful now, the images of events to come sharper, clearer, with the power of a god. Her vision wasn't like a branching tree, wherein she could see all possible outcomes, but rather a thread she had to follow through a dark tunnel, with certain pivotal events projected by unseen means onto the walls around her.   There were several threads she could follow to different fortuitous outcomes, and sometimes the thread would split in two, signifying multiple means of getting where she needed to. No matter what, though, the split threads would return to each other by the end. Most of the time, she would only see the first few events in the chain, those following to be revealed when she began travelling along its path. In this way, her Light abilities most strongly resembled a wheel, with spokes she could follow out in all directions, leading to different points on the wheel. Some of the spokes were split, which somehow made the wheel stronger and the events more easy to reach. It wasn't a perfect metaphor. She was working on it. 

Currently, the beginning of the event thread Kanaya wanted her to find was eluding her. 

"It's hard to say," She replied. "Does the repopulation of your species qualify as a victory to you? These things aren't always clear cut., some outcomes are for your own judgement. What outcome would you like the most?"

"I would like to have the orb again, and to keep it safe this time. I guess, to not be a total failure."

Rose wanted to say something comforting immediately, but knew too little about alien reproduction to make claims of her future success right away, nor the confidence to speak against Kanaya's self depreciation. She closed her eyes, and searched for little longer. She found what she was looking for this time. It was an especially vague thread, with only a starting event that she could see, but, thankfully, it was an event that did point to Kanaya needing to stay on the meteor. She opened her eyes. "Okay. If you follow my advice, I can at least promise you'll find yourself in the best position to determine whether that may come to pass."

Kanaya still looked unsure, hesitating, glancing towards the sun. (rose refused the short term memories rushing to the surface of her brain, clamoring and fighting each other in a savage battle to be heard.)

"Can you please come?" Rose pleaded. "Between the two of us, you with your heretofore unmentioned phosphorescence, and I with my nigh-reflective traffic cone orange sun-sari, the meteor should never be... too dark." She trailed off just slightly at the end of the thought, watching Kanaya's face closely. 

She almost didn't notice Vriska's loud snort of laughter, followed by a mutter of "Get a block, oh my GOD.”

Kanaya blushed, the aforementioned phosphorescence glowing a bit brighter, difficult to see in the glare of the sun. (when she had realized the first guardian had tricked them, it felt like the moon was exploding, unbalancing her. then it really did.) "Well, all right. But must we really leave so soon?"

Rose had only just opened her mouth to remind Kanaya of their incoming visitor when said visitor made himself known in a flash of green light. It was in that moment of staring down at the wounded little carapacian that Rose realized just how exhausted she was. The rush she'd felt from finally setting their plan into motion, from stealing Dave's mission and having it somewhat stolen back, from rising through green plasma, weightless and blinded by overstimulation, praying for a darkness she couldn't even find behind her own eyelids, was gone now. Her legs seemed to liquify into jelly, and she slumped against a nearby pillar for support, mentally groping for the thread of a future that would most quickly lead her to a nap. She quickly issued the orders that her Vision told her to, before pushing herself down into a more comfortable sitting position. She could feel herself retreating, from all these faces, lights and noises that she simply couldn't muster up the effort to deal with right now. Couldn't muster up the effort to truly get away from them, either--where would she even go? And so she sat. 

That is, she sat until Kanaya came over to come get her. 

"Come on, I can show you to an empty block where you can set up your things," she said softly, extending a hand. 

Rose, with nerves frazzled far beyond the point where she felt okay touching people, didn't take it, but offered a small smile to Kanaya instead, who luckily didn't seem too offended. She followed Kanaya over to Dave, who had been following Terezi, and therefore Vriska, around like a lost puppy, giving him the same offer, and together the humans followed Kanaya to a transportalizer, which brought them to a hallway, which brought them to another transportalizer. Their trek continued in this manner, ambling and silent, for a few minutes, time which thankfully gave Rose's brain a bit of time to further process recent events and recuperate a smidgen. That was, until Dave had apparently expended the maximum time he could possibly spend silent in a day. 

"Damn, this meteor is so shitty. I can see how harassing a bunch of strangers could become so appealing as entertainment. What are we even going to do for three years?"

"We have a room full of alchemiters not too far from the respiteblocks. I alchemized a few books a while ago, and I know Karkat's made several movies. There is some form of the Internet preserved through undoubtedly mystical and bizarre means of this game, although of course, nothing new will ever be added. So you're right, the means of entertainment here are very limited, but I can promise from experience that you'll spend at least a day alchemizing the essentials. Food, those weird human beds of yours... Oh!" Kanaya almost trips over what looks like an honest-to-God treasure chest that must have once been neatly tucked against the wall, but now lay haphazardly at a diagonal, with only one corner still touching the wall. 

She bent down to open it. "These scattered all across the meteor, most of them are full of useless junk or weapons. The most common form of prank over the past few days has been stealing others' belongings and stashing them away somewhere for the victim to find later, so I'd advise keeping a close eye on any belongings you particularly treasure." 

Kanaya fished out what looked to be a gauntlet of shockingly sleek design, with long barbed blades arching out of the knuckles like Wolverine claws. The piece looked like it had once been pristine and light grayish-blue, but was now stained dark red along the claws, with several spots that looked as if the blood had dripped down onto the fingers. Kanaya's lips, painted bright green with what looked to be flecks of purple on one corner (an alien fashion statement? Something told Rose that this was not the case.) pressed together into a tight line. Chains displaying the telltale overly smooth texture of a modus projection curled around the gauntlet, then it and the chains holding it disappeared. 

Kanaya stood quickly, startling both of her human companions. "Right. There's a sort of unspoken rule about keeping whatever you find in chests, even if it's exceptionally shitty, so keep that in mind as well. Sometimes the chests can be a fun surprise but after a while opening too many results in a clogged sylladex." She began walking, quite quickly, down the hall towards the next transportalizer. 

"On an unrelated note, your temporary respiteblocks aren't too far now, two more transportalizers down. They're fairly small, but as far as I know there aren't any larger rooms suitably cleared out or able to be quickly cleaned at the moment, but these should at least last a few days until then." She zapped through the transportalizer. Rose paused long enough to throw Dave a curious look, a silent question about Kanaya's erratic behavior.  He shrugged, and the two of them followed her. 

The rooms were, like Kanaya said, quite small. They looked much like the rest of the meteor, existing at the end of a long, dim hallway with interiors that mirrored the appearance of said hallway only crushed into a square space. In one, there was a vent up near the ceiling leaking something unfathomable and dark at odd intervals, splashing on the tile below and sending small drops off in random directions. In the other, there was an odd, weak smell emanating from one corner. It wasn't even too bad of a smell, it was merely... a smell. 

Rose met Dave's eyes. Dave met Rose's eyes. They both dashed for the ventless room. 

Unfortunately for Rose, she had forgotten, or perhaps underestimated, Dave's ability to flashstep, and despite starting off closer to the desired room, he darted in front of her and wedged himself in the doorway. She crashed against him and hissed softly, pulling a face and flipping off the smug smile that had quirked up one corner of his lips. 

"I'll leave you all to it, then," Kanaya said, bemused. She hesitated in the hall, eyeing them both, before turning a corner and walking out of sight. 

Rose then went into her own weird, gross room. Studied the mystery fluid as it dripped onto the floor pensively. The room really wasn't too bad, but she'd be damned if she slept on the floor. 

Trudging out and around another corner to where Kanaya had pointed out the alchemy room, she began pulling things out of her sylladex at random. There were a few stuffed animals and some soft pajamas she'd like to use, maybe-- but how could she get a mattress out of that? She hummed in contemplation, placing both down on the alchemiter. It was then that she noticed a line of chests tucked away in the corner of the room. Remembering what Kanaya had said, she wandered over to them, trailing her fingers across their dusty lids. She stopped abruptly near the end of the line, familiarity striking her all at once. She had Seen these chests before. Not only were they important, but this one in particular, the one second to the end of the line-- innocuous and innocent looking though it was-- would play a role in the most fortuitous outcome of all. 

Rose didn't let herself think about this one too often, it just seemed too good to be true most of the time. But this, the first step on that path, made it all come rushing back. She Saw the Earth, with human and troll children alike playing and the sun shining. She Saw herself, content and laughing, tending to a garden. She saw Dave, smiling with more emotion than all of the expressions she'd ever seen him wear combined. 

She saw herself, tightening a purple tie over a black suit with a spray of flowers tucked into one pocket. 

All of that started here, she knew. All of that began with her, opening a chest. 

Naturally, she threw it open immediately. What would she find? Some mystical weapon for beating Jack? A tool, to recreate Earth anew? What could possibly be the key to her new universe?

It was, disappointingly, a book. 

Usually books were something Rose found it hard to be disappointed by, unless they were truly awful literature, but this one was just empty. It had a hard, green cover and yellowed pages within that despite their appearance of age, actually seemed quite sturdy still. 

An empty book... she assumed she would write in it? But what? Rose looked to her Vision for answers and found none. The voice of her exile was long gone. She turned the book over in her hands, feeling the grainy texture of the color and the jagged edges of the pages along the edge. Interesting. 

Rose popped the book into her sylladex to deal with at a later time, after she'd managed to make something she could sleep on. She was still very tired, after all. 

The first mattress-like item she crafts is orange, with a yellow sun in the center, soft like her new outfit. An unpleasantly familiar appearance, despite the new softness of the object. She swallowed hard and tossed it into her sylladex before she could convince herself to waste more grist on modifying its appearance. She quickly creates a nice lavender sheet set from a pair of monogrammed silk pajamas her mother had gotten her for one birthday or another, and stumbles back to her room, rubbing her eyes to keep the drooping eyelids away. 

When she arrives back in her room, she drops the mattress without ceremony, immediately flipping it sun-down and covering it with a sheet for good measure. She shoves it into a corner apparently unaffected by the vent drip, and finally sinks onto it with a deep sigh. Finding that she had no remaining energy to put into keeping her eyes open, she allowed them to drift shut, falling quickly into a deep sleep.

Over the next three years, it would become difficult to keep track of time. Day and night were impossible to sort out from one another, and so within a few days trolls and humans alike found themselves on the same sleep schedule. Several of them attempted to keep track of how many days they'd been onboard, but all inevitably would fail due to the lack of separation between day and night. Dave, however, was an exceptionally reliable timepiece, and would always be able to tell anyone who asked that the meteor began its journey at 1:12 AM on April 14, 2009. They'd been on board for such-and-such days, and that meant it was some irrelevant holiday or meant that they had such-and-such days remaining. Regardless of what day Dave said it was, the same feeling always resulted from his time updates. 

Rose had the feeling it would be a long three years. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all SO much for the love on the previous chapter. i'm so excited to continue!!  
> image credits: Xamag's art for Vriskagram again. I didn't draw anything for this chapter as I was short on time, but I might come back and add one or two later on!  
> Hope you enjoy :)

It took Rose nearly two whole weeks to figure out what to do with her new green book. She'd bounced back and forth between ideas for a while, at times contemplating making a personal journal, recreating what she could of Complacency of the Learned, and even learning to draw. Eventually, though, she'd discarded these ideas as serving no long-term purpose as far as she could See. At last, after a great deal of thinking and hesitation, she knew what she would write. First, for customizing the book's aesthetic, she used the Quills Jade had given her to artfully carve her initials into the front cover, leaving the indentations shimmering with residual magic. Then, she began to write. 

Introduction:

Allow me to make this prologue as brief as possible. I am a human, a creature presumably from another universe, whose purpose in writing this book is to inform you, the reader, of a game that ruined my life. It will inevitably ruin the lives of everyone within your entire species, even if you yourself are not still living to see it happen. This tome will contain vital information for possibly saving your species, as well as the meticulously spun tales of a teenage alien fueled almost entirely by boredom and frustration.  The responsibility of playing this game has apparently fallen on you or one of your descendants, if I trust that Paradox Space has ensured that this book falls into the right hands. Paradox Space is not generally something to trust, unless of course in situations of significant convolution like this. However, there is no entity I would trust more than Paradox Space to instigate a ridiculous chain of events that will lead to this book exiting the Medium in which I currently dwell and allowing it to fall, after a long series of stupid and pointless events, into your alien fingers. You likely understood none of that, but I've recently had quite a bad day in which I died at least twice, was tricked into doing so by a suicidal omnipotent being, and saw countless loved ones cut down--many of which didn't come back. Therefore, I've developed a love of straightforwardness and blunt wording recently. Regardless of my cavalier bluntness and confusing ways in this portion, everything I have said here and will say in later sections will be explained in time, that is to say when I am feeling a bit more up to the task of detailed explanations. 

This book will be divided into its two main types of information by text color, with my research and definite knowledge about the game, arranged in blunt, proseless facts written in black and the history of myself and my team's experience with the game, and what lies beyond it, written in a much more self-indulgent  purple.  I fully intend to switch between the two semi-frequently, as I plan on doing only one draft and it's rather hard to organize a book you haven't yet written.

The force driving me to write this is an utter mystery to me. I've tried my hand at writing a game guide before and, helpful as it may have been for one group of players, it wasn't exactly my best work. My motivation this time is simply boredom, actually. After all, today is the seventh day I have spent on this meteor, traveling at the speed of light through a realm called the Furthest Ring (another term to be defined later), and as with all of the 1,089 days that will follow, I have nothing better to do with my time.

The tale of how I came to exist within these preposterous circumstances is a long and twisted one that I shall be unfolding for you in this odd combination of autobiography and game guide. I hope you take the time to study it thoroughly, for your own sake... To the future player that I hope with every molecule of my being is reading this… please learn from our mistakes. Good luck to you and other players in your session.

— RL

 

After finishing this impulse-driven introduction, Rose took a moment to skim back over what she’d written, briefly pitying whoever would stumble upon this book first. She stared at the page for a while and, finding herself overwhelmed by the thought of the massive writing project she’d just committed herself to, slumped back onto her pillow pile. She observed the perfect squares of the ceiling panels above her; bored, yet unwilling to do anything to change that fact. She had alchemized enough canned food to last herself and Dave nearly a year already and, from there, had began experimenting with perishable items and creating a catalog of the codes she’d discovered on the wall in chalk. 

She had then helped clean out two of the larger rooms for Dave and herself, which were much closer to the circle of transportalizers leading to the troll's bedrooms this time. She'd pushed around human-sized jars of green, brackish fluid and floating carapacians. She had alchemized a broom and swept a ridiculous amount of dust away into a corner, then alchemized a few pieces of functional furniture, though they certainly weren't the prettiest or the most well-matching pieces. If you ignored the lack of windows and the enduring coldness that seemed to seep into every corner of the meteor no matter what anyone did, it would almost feel like a real home. Her mother would certainly get a kick out of seeing Rose be the one to play out the dutiful housewife routine, with all of this food preparation and cleaning. It was a thought she quickly suppressed, and immediately she started to hum to herself loudly, needing something noisy to focus on instead of following the horrible, terrible conclusion that those sort of thoughts lead to. 

Also, in her boredom, she’d slept quite a lot. The dream bubbles were fascinating, and she’d met several new trolls from whom she’d heard many tales of the trolls’ session, as well as held a number of interesting conversations with versions of herself from doomed timelines and hearing their stories. The only people she’d failed to encounter yet were Jade and John in any form, much to her disappointment. 

She'd also helped the others in guarding the body of their Dersite guest, who they'd taken to referring to as the Mayor thanks to the odd little makeshift sash he wore. She had reassured the others that it was well worth their time to keep him safe, as he’d be crucial to certain events on their journey as well as an event in the new session mostly obscured from her Vision save for his involvement, and that they'd have help in resurrecting him along their journey.

Now, having finished all the most necessary tasks and with the concept of even picking up her journal again feeling like an impossible feat of willpower, it seemed all there was left to do was to wait around for something of any interest at all to happen. It was certainly odd after the immensely action-packed day of gameplay. 

She'd taken to spending a lot of time in her room, following the example of the trolls. She'd barely seen them all week, save for when it came time to switch out the Mayor's temporary guard. The few other times she'd run into one of them in the hallways had been tense, stilted exchanges. Just yesterday, she'd seen Karkat speed walking from his room to the alchemiters and back in three minutes flat, glancing at her out of the corner of his eyes only as she watched him alchemize some kind of alien bread from where she sat on a nearby chest with one quirked eyebrow at his surprisingly reclusive act. 

Dave was the only one who she'd seen for any extended period of time. He'd helped her clean out their new rooms and then visited her daily after that, entertaining her with his own takes on the meteor experience. This mostly consisted of complaining about Vriska and Karkat, speculating on the whereabouts of Gamzee (who had escaped into the ventilation system a few days earlier, much to everyone's dismay), and “subtly” seeking advice on why Terezi might be avoiding him in a way that was not nearly as subtle as he probably thought it was. 

Normally, she wouldn't mind a bit of isolation and quiet.  However, it unnerved her to know that there were six other people living on this meteor and she only was having regular contact with two (due to his decidedly dead state, the Mayor was not the best of conversationalists at the moment.) for an entire week. It seemed especially odd that Kanaya had avoided her for this long. They'd often talked about meeting over Pesterchum, so... had Rose misinterpreted something along the way? Had she skimmed one of Kanaya's more verbose rambles and missed the part where her true intentions were stated? It drove her crazy. And what had happened to the other trolls? She’d gathered that many had died from her naps in the bubbles and given the talk of “corpse parties” they'd had at their first and only meeting as a group, but she was still a bit lost. What happened? Why were they killed? John had told her about Karkat saying he was in danger, she knew trolls were more violent on average from the information Kanaya had revealed about her homeworld, and she was almost positive that the colorful stains decorating the halls, computer room, and observation deck had been blood. Dave had agreed, but been similarly clueless when she’d tried to enlist his help in solving the mystery. 

She didn’t get her answers until several days later, when she'd gotten another long-term project idea for the journey and enlisted Dave in helping her clean out the computer lab. Karkat had mentioned in one of their brief hallway encounters that the room had been used as a base of operations for human-hassling, and so Rose had resolved to liven up the room and resurrect its original purpose in a way, as a common room.

Upon arrival, it became abundantly clear that the room was at the center of the trolls’ disaster, given the absurd amount of damage it'd taken. Great sprays of pink and green coated the floor, with a smaller quantity of yellow on one dented wall and in a smudgy path towards the door.

"The trolls bleed the same color they type in, right?" Dave asked, kicking a lone scalemate out of his way as he surveyed the damage. 

"Unsettlingly, yes. So here would be… From what I know, yes- so that'd mean Feferi was here- I know she died, I met her in a bubble, and either Kanaya or Nepeta were over there... I'd guess Nepeta, though, given the sheer quantity of blood and the fact that Kanaya's alive still. She was a really sweet girl, it’s a shame... Did you ever talk to someone with a yellow theme?"

"Wasn’t the symbol on Sollux’s shirt yellow? God, these fuckers are messed up. The whole issue with this game is that there's a limited number from your species left, and they decide to just start killing each other left and right? Definitely got a handle on that problem."

"Actually," came a new, drawling, and generally unwelcome voice. "Kanaya did die. Didn't you notice she's a rainbow drinker now? All glowing and shit like that." Vriska was leaning on the doorframe, coffee mug in hand. She raised it to her lips and slurped the last of its contents obnoxiously. 

"A what now?" Dave asked. 

"Your sad little culture doesn't have rainbow drinkers? Basically, they're undead and drink blood. That's pretty much all there is to say about them. Also, the killings weren't _all_ arbitrary. A few were deserved, in my opinion."

“You mean a vampire?” Dave muttered. Vriska rolled her eyes.

"Oh really?" Rose responded. "Why did they die? What happened here, exactly?"

"Well, Eridan decided to murder both Feferi and Kanaya during one of his obnoxious duels with Sollux, for some incomprehensible and probably dumb reasons. He also destroyed the Matriorb, meaning the chance of saving our species is slim to none.  He was going to kill more, probably, until Kanaya came back with her chainsaw and a vengeance. Equius and Nepeta were also pointless deaths, since Gamzee went totally nuts and killed them to realize his super-shitty clown destiny or whatever. Tavros was the other one who died. He wanted to fight."

"Damn, you fuckers are drama machines." Dave said evenly.

"Well, that's just how life is with trolls. What are you two doing in here anyway?"

"We were cleaning up, for lack of anything better to do. I thought with some new decor and a lack of bloodstains, this place could make for a nice shared room. Also, the coffee machine's already here, so there's the bonus of not needing to figure out how to move it or waste grist on another."

Vriska was standing at the coffee machine now, refilling her mug as well as a second one she'd pulled from her sylladex. "Well, good luck with that. You'll need all you can get if you plan on getting Karkat or Kanaya in here ever again."

The room was briefly quiet, filled with the soft clinking and honking sound of the horn pile being kicked under a corner desk. 

"It's a shame, honestly. This room is where we spent all that time trolling you all!" 

"We heard," Rose replied. "Do you have any other suggestions for meeting places? It's getting a little annoying, knowing that there are other people here but not interacting with them at all. We'll have to learn to like each other at least a little if we want this trip to go smoothly and if we want to defeat Jack in three years."

Vriska sighed. "Yeah, you're right. This place is more central than most, and you'll probably be able to drag those two in here eventually, if you give them a while to get over themselves. I probably won't be showing up often, but I could hold strategy meetings every so often to keep everyone thinking about the big fight and make sure they're training."

"Yeah, that could be useful. So, do you want to help set it up?" Rose replied. She wasn't expecting much, and it showed in her tone. 

Vriska took a sip, grimacing. "I'm busy. Got some stuff to be doing with Terezi right now. Have fun, though."

She made her exit, and Dave frowned. "Is it just me, or is Vriska the only one that Terezi gives a shit about, suddenly?"

"I wouldn't know, I never talked much to either of them. Patron troll issues?"

"The fairy god troll idea is dumb and you know it."

"Maybe so," Rose responded. "Regardless, I can relate. Kanaya's not talked to me at all since she showed us around."

"Really? I thought you two would be making out, like, the instant we got here. You weren't with her most of this week?"

Rose's heart thumped. "No! What? Where did you get that? I've either been in my room or alchemizing food most of the time."

"From the way you two acted around each other in the game, that's just what I thought it was leading up to, I guess. She literally came to me for tips on how to flirt with you, for fuck's sake. I would've come over to annoy you more often if I knew-"

"She what?"

"Yeah, she came around asking about how sarcasm worked and how to make you like her and stuff. You're just picking up on this now?"

"Is that exactly what she said? Are you sure she meant flirting?"

"Oh my God. You may like to act like you’re hot shit, but this is absolutely hopeless. You don't think her way of antagonizing you early on, any of the times she kept talking to you even when it wasn’t about the plan- you think there was nothing different about that from how the other trolls were acting?"

Rose was reeling. "No? What do you mean?"

"Dude. Remember when you showed me that log when you were telling me about the Scratch? I'm, like, 95% sure she's into you."

Rose could no longer think sensibly enough to rattle off any more fractured questions. She made a noise around the verbal equivalent of a string of question marks. 

"Whatever. We'll deal with your girlfriend issues later. What do you think is the least gross way to get rid of these stains?"

>>>O

On her way back to her room after the two had finished work for the day, Rose stopped by where the Mayor's body was being guarded. Inside, Kanaya and Karkat were talking in hushed tones (or, as hushed a tone as Karkat could manage, hovering somewhere around normal speaking volume). Perhaps they had been switching shifts? Whatever they were doing, Rose hadn't been expecting them. She paused to think of what to say, full of questions after Vriska's erratic infodumping spree but not knowing how to lead up to such questions in a polite way. Perhaps thankfully, she was interrupted by an odd humming noise resonating through the halls around them. The two trolls' heads snapped up to face her, turning just in time to see an iridescent wall swelling up through the wall to engulf them. 

Being physically launched into a dream bubble didn't provide the same comfort as being introduced through one of your own memories, rather physical visitors seemed to be simply thrust into whatever memory the bubble was already producing for its inhabitants.  This particular one was massive. She could still see the slate gray concrete of the meteor's floor beneath her, but as soon as her gaze fell more than three feet away, she found herself in the shadow of a large glass globe, perhaps as big as a large factory, filled with water. The structure curved over them, surrounded by long strands of pristine lime green grass danced on a breeze she couldn't yet feel, and pastel swirls of coral jutted up from the grass like something out of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory of dubious safety. Everywhere around her, the colors seemed more vivid. One could even say they were dream-like, if they were feeling especially on the nose with their word choices.

"Fuck," Karkat hissed, jumping up to his feet. He stood in the small circle of meteor-grey flooring left around himself, Kanaya, Rose, and the Mayor, with the colorful landscape stretched out on that side as well for a few feet, before fading into something cold and grey, a land with sharp angles and silhouettes of castles jutting out every which way. Hazy shapes made lazy circles in the clouded-over sky. 

"Fuck, indeed," Kanaya responded, drawing her lipstick from her pocket and staring resolutely into the grey land. 

"Don't do anything rash," Karkat said. "He might not even be the same one, for all we know."

"Yes, but what if he is? Even if he isn't, I don't want to see him."

"I don't either. Fuck, I hate dream bubbles so much. Why did the horrorterrors have to put us in this one, of all places?"

"Whose memory is this?" Rose asked cautiously, seeing the trolls' agitation. 

"The grey land is the Land of Wrath and Angels. It was Eridan's planet, he was one of our resident fucking psychomurderers."

"You spoke to him," Kanaya added helpfully, "I believe you blew up his computer? I don't think I ever properly thanked you for that."

"Oh, is that what happened to it? Nice job," Karkat said. "The other place is the Land of Dew and Glass, Feferi's planet. She only talked to Jade, I think. Then the aforementioned Dipshit of Hope killed her."

A tiny, imaginary click seemed to sound in Rose's head as the final steps towards an outcome she'd been monitoring for a while slid into place. "Would she happen to be a Hero of Life?"

"How did you-"

"I mentioned on our first day here that we'd be getting help for the Mayor along the way. I knew this because I'd seen his revival as one of the many fortuitous endings resulting from our meteor journey. A Life player would be a great resource in figuring out how to perform such a resurrection, wouldn't they?”

The trolls exchanged a look. "Perhaps," Kanaya replied, slowly. "She might know something, though our timeline's Feferi never did get very far in her quest. She could do some minor healing, but that was about it, and obviously she never made god tier."

"Whale, that's some bullcarp!" a high, giggling voice called from above.

Karkat inhaled sharply, and the group turned to see a pair of trolls descending. Two sets of wings, one pink and the other purple, beat rhythmically to bring their attached bodies down safely to the ground. Both were clearly dead, and wearing the sort of ridiculous attire Rose had come to expect from her fellow God tiers. 

"Your timeline sounds pretty flipping boring if you ask-- oh! Are you all alive? Where'd you pick up the weird hornless alien from?" the pink-winged troll continued. 

"I wouldn't call it boring, but I suppose I'm saying that from the perspective of having no idea what exciting events must have happened in your timeline to make you think so. Yes, against all odds we do still seem to be alive." Kanaya answered flatly, eyes trained on the other troll, who was standing back a ways, arms crossed tight over his chest and head tilted away from everyone in disinterest. 

"I'm Rose, I was born in the universe created by your session," Rose continued. "You're Feferi, I take it?"

She gasped, grinning. "Yes, that's me! We made a universe in the alpha timeline? Oh my cod, you all really aren't boring after all! By the way, mister grumpy gills in the goofy yellow outfit over there is Eridan! He's moping, so he probably won't be too helpful for a while yet."

Eridan let out a long, intensely dramatic sigh, tossing his gaze further away from the assembled group. "I can still _hear_ you, y'know, and I don't need you encouragin' disrespect from some weird alien that don't even have horns."

Feferi giggled at that, turning her attention back to Kanaya and Karkat. "What were you saying, anyway? Something about needing help? I can try my best!" She clearly hadn't picked up on the part of the conversation about her own grisly murder, and was rocking back and forth on her heels in anticipation. 

"We need to figure out a way to revive this carapacian," Rose explained. "I had reason to believe we could get what we needed in a bubble, would you know anything about that?" 

Feferi immediately grinned widely, flashing pointy white teeth. "I sure can try! Here, let me have the little guy and I'll see what I can do." She dropped down to her knees next to the Mayor, scooting him over until he was nearly in her lap. She ran her hands over him quickly, in a practiced sort of motion she must've had to perform before in her session, humming as she went. 

"Hmmm. Give me a bit of space, please?" Rose, Kanaya, and Karkat all backed up as Feferi began to glow. Eridan pettily shuffled a few inches closer, peering over her shoulder. 

"So," Rose said, turning to Kanaya as Feferi and Eridan's ensuing bickering faded into the background. "I haven't seen much of you lately."

Kanaya's glow flickered, and she rocked back and forth on her toes slightly. "Ah, sorry about that. I've been a bit... busy."

Rose didn't buy that at all, but was glad enough to finally be talking to her that she didn't feel much like pressing further. "So have I, to be honest. I've been writing quite a bit this past week, once Dave and I were mostly settled in."

"Oh? What were you writing about?"

Rose sighed. "I'm not sure if there's one good word to describe it, really. I've planned on making it a sort of combination between historical journal and research compilation, partly recounting details of our session and hopefully, yours as well, while also serving as a compendium of all knowledge our group has on the game in a more general sense. A bit like that guide you read, only longer and much better written, now that I have the time to do so. With any luck, Paradox Space will let it fall into the hands of yet another young player, somewhere."

Kanaya looked up, interest piqued. "That's a good idea, it could help our group as well when it comes time to reach the new session and deal with Jack."

"Yes, the only issue I'm having with it is a lack of material on which to base the more mechanics-based sections. With only two sessions' worth of data, I can't rely on anything to be consistent across all sessions, given the oddities that allowed our groups to meet. I think the book would be more than enough to fill nearly all of my time for the next three years, if only I had more to go off of."

"Hmm," Kanaya responded. Nearby, Eridan was trying to argue that his presence would assist Feferi by virtue of healing being "a hope-y thing". Every time he spoke, Rose noticed Kanaya shift, keeping an eye on his every move. 

Karkat, seemingly fed up with the amount of time they were wasting before the meteor would inevitably exit the bubble, stomped over to Eridan and, pinching one wing between two fingers, dragged the squirming and protesting troll off to one side. 

Rose turned her attention back to Kanaya, who continued. "If you'd like, I could do my best to help with that. Perhaps we could find some reading material in these bubbles, I know Prospit had several libraries scattered about. Or... I suppose we could search the meteor-- it really is vast, and we've only scratched the surface of its contents. Even if you just have a few questions about my session's events beyond what I've told you already, I'm willing to answer whatever I can."

Rose's lips quirked up, trying to keep herself from grinning too widely outright. "That'd be very much appreciated, Kanaya. I feel a bit bad that every time we've talked in the past has been entirely information-centric and here I am just asking more and more questions."

"Oh, I don't mind. Like you said a while ago, it's an exchange of ignorances." The lilt in her tone betrayed her eagerness, and to Rose, it felt like the first victory she'd had on this miserable rock. 

 

Behind them, the dim pink glow that had draped around Feferi's form like a blanket intensified in a bright flash, and then disappeared altogether. She relaxed and leaned back onto her hands, exhaling noisily and tilting her face towards the sky. 

The little Dersite in front of her squirmed, curling up a bit tighter before slowly blinking his eyes open and scooting to a position from which he could more easily view the group gathered around him.  

"Thank you for your help," Rose said to the exhausted troll girl. "Not to cast doubt on your abilities as a God Tier, but I'm a bit surprised that a ghost is able to use resurrection magic. Seems a bit... overpowered, I guess?"

"I don't think I could do it again if I tried, at least not for a long while," Feferi answered. "Maybe it was a one time thing, to help advance the Alpha timeline? Or it's because I used the powers so much while I was alive... Something to do with experience? Regardless, I don't think I could resurrect a ghost on their own- you all were lucky to still have the body on hand, I guess!"

"Interesting," Rose hummed. Kanaya, too, looked contemplative. 

Karkat returned, having pried himself away from Eridan with much difficulty. Literally pried himself away, as the sea dweller’s arms had tried to come down around Karkat's neck after a patently fake yawn. Karkat stared at Kanaya with the suffering of a thousand imaginary martyrs behind his eyes. She let out a soft exhale of laughter, despite her still obvious discomfort with this bubble's ghost inhabitants. 

A beat of awkward silence ensued, both parties staring at each other blankly, the living sizing up the dead. The recently living was regaining control of his legs, seemingly in awe of his decidedly alive state. He didn't seem to be able to talk, but stood in front of Feferi, let out a soft, adorable squeak and stuck out his hand almost straight above his head as if for a handshake. 

Amused, Feferi took the proffered hand and shook it lightly, only for him to tug gently and press the back of it to his face in imitation of a kiss. Cuteness contests across all of Paradox Space were instantly cancelled. The Mayor had won them all with this one power move of a gesture. 

Feferi let out a quiet "Aww," kneeling down to smile at him and offer a hug, which he leapt for. Karkat rolled his eyes, but there was a rare softness there, too. 

While the others took in the cute extravaganza, Rose happened to glance up. The scenery behind them was beginning to turn pink-tinted and almost melty, in a way. "This has been wonderful, everyone, but I'm afraid we'll have to get going rather immediately."

The Mayor separated from Feferi, much to her dismay, and the meteor group waved goodbye as their gray surroundings returned and Eridan and Feferi disappeared in the swirling glassy surface of the bubble's outer wall. 

>>>O

Since the bubble escapade, Rose had taken the liberty of introducing Dave to the newly resurrected Mayor, and much like any other sane person Dave had fallen for the little Dersite instantly. The two had gone skipping to some room Dave had found earlier, with Dave promising to set it up as a room for him. 

True to her word, Kanaya came knocking at Rose's door only a few hours after promising to help work on her  book. She looked almost surprised when Rose answered immediately. 

"Hello Kanaya, come on in," Rose greeted her. 

"Hi," the troll girl responded, following her inside the large gray room. "I was just thinking we could get started on that book of yours, since it's not like we have much else to do. Terezi told me that we should be clear of any bubbles for several hours, at the very least."

"Of course. How is she able to tell? She may be a Seer as well, but I wouldn't expect bubble-vision to come in her power set."

"She has a device she's been using to detect them, a smell-o-scope she alchemized a while ago. She and Vriska have commandeered the main observation deck as their own personal shared block, it seems." There was a note of bitterness in her voice that caught Rose's attention. 

"What's up with those two? Any time I would hear about either of them from Dave or John it seemed that they were rivals of a sort, but they haven't left each other's side since I arrived, I don't think."

Kanaya sighed. "They haven't. If I were to guess, I'd say they were probably matesprits now, but it definitely is odd. They were never fully black towards each other before, not really, but they did lean towards it at times. I hope they won't start to vacillate too often, though, as that could be potentially devastating to the remaining population of this meteor and I'm getting really tired of intervening in things like this."

Rose leaned forward, intrigued. "Vacillate? I thought I understood most of the quadrant basics from what you told me and my gatherings from others while in the game, but I haven't heard this one before."

"Oh!" Kanaya looked surprised, before launching into a lengthy explanation. Naturally, this led to more questions from Rose, and so the hours began to pass in this way. Rose compared the red/black flipping to the enemies to lovers trope in her own culture, causing Kanaya to inquire about the nature of human relationships in greater depth. The pair meandered through topics in this manner for quite a while, until both of them ended up sprawled across Rose's mattress, collapsed in hysterical laughter over Rose's satirical review and deconstruction of the first conversation Kanaya had shared with "her", offering somber critiques of John's poor acting abilities. The green book had been cast down onto the floor, remaining unopened since Kanaya's arrival. 

"I have to ask," Kanaya wheezed at last, wiping the last mint-green tears from her eyes. "What's the deal  with this movie he was referring to?"

Rose rolled over a bit, propping her chin up on a pillow, still smiling. "Oh, God. It's so awful, Kanaya, you don't even want to know. The kid has no taste, I swear."

"Is it at least the enjoyable sort of bad movie?"

"Not really, it's just so deeply mediocre it's not even worth talking about but he hypes up almost any movie like that as if it's the pinnacle of human culture."

“That reminds me of how Karkat is with his romance movies. He acts as if they’re all fascinating sociological studies, when really they’re just sort of silly and fun.”

Rose hummed. “Maybe I could make that another section in the book, just for psychoanalyzing everyone I know. It’d definitely be useless, but at least it’d be a fun time-waster.”

“The book!” Kanaya cried, sitting straight up and peering off of the bed to where it had fallen. “I completely forgot that we were supposed to be working on it!”

“Oh, you’re right. Oh well,” Rose responded, shifting into a more comfortable position. 

“I’m sorry for getting us both so off track,” Kanaya said, avoiding eye contact. 

“No, really! It’s completely alright, it was much more fun to just talk like this, I think. Besides, it’s not as if we’re lacking in time.” Rose offered a small smile. 

“I suppose you’re right.”

A beat of silence followed, interrupted only by Rose yawning. 

“Perhaps we should pick this back up in the morning. It’s been quite the eventful day, hasn’t it?” Kanaya said finally. 

Rose agreed, and walked the troll to her door. For some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to shut said door immediately, choosing to instead watch Kanaya walk briskly away down the hall, lighting the area up as she went. 

It was with much reluctance that Rose finally closed it, for a reason she couldn’t identify. She’d stood there for longer than necessary, about five minutes after Kanaya’s retreating glow was no longer visible. 

It was as she tucked herself in, moments after closing her eyes, that a reason finally occurred to her. Eyes flying wide open once again, she went rigid. 

Oh, fuck. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whew, that was a long one! FINALLY, we're out of the exposition zone. we also hit 10k in under a month, a new record for me!  
> so, clearly, the update every sunday schedule didn't work. oh well! next update should be in abouuutt two weeks??? i can't promise anything concrete because i'm on vacation for the next 10 days and then have to pack for college as soon as i get back! i'll do my best to get the update out to you ASAP. 
> 
> follow me on [ TWITTER ](https://twitter.com/loravura) for various gay rants + updates on my progress, and [ TUMBLR ](https://loravura.tumblr.com/) to see more of my art!
> 
> Huge thanks to my beta readers, saltyLemonade and Kate once again :)
> 
> Comments and kudos are much appreciated! <3 Also, feel free to let me know if my HTML is screwy or if you see a typo!

**Author's Note:**

> I’m just getting back into writing after a very, very long hiatus of a year and a half, so please be patient with me as I get back into the swing of things! I’m PLANNING on updating weekly, every Sunday, but also keep in mind that I have a vacations soon and also I’m moving to college for the first time in a month, so… we’ll see how that goes.  
> Sorry about the reused dialogue in this one, I can promise with 95% certainty that I won’t make y’all sit through more of that in the future. I mostly just really wanted to write more detail behind Rose’s thoughts as Kanaya almost left kdjfnskdjnf  
> Also, I know I took a little minor creative license with the order of events here, but ehh I don't think you guys care too much? hopefully. 
> 
> follow me on [ TWITTER ](https://twitter.com/loravura) for various gay rants + updates on my progress, and [ TUMBLR ](https://loravura.tumblr.com/) to see more of my art!
> 
> Comments and kudos are much appreciated! <3 Also, feel free to let me know if my HTML is screwy or if you see a typo, it's been a while since I posted!


End file.
